Andrew Nesbitt announces the launch of the Software Stewardship Lab, a Scottish non-profit focused on applied research into open source sustainability. The lab aims to address the chronic funding instability that plagues open source research by providing an institutional home with a longer horizon than single grant cycles. Research themes include supply chain security, maintainer wellbeing, funding models, and governance. The board includes notable figures from the JavaScript ecosystem (Nuxt, Vite) and open source tooling (Homebrew). The lab plans to publish open-access papers, open datasets, and open source tools, funded through company sponsorships and individual contributions via Open Collective. A long-term goal is to offer open-ended stipends to researchers so work can outlast individual grants.
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What is the Software Stewardship Lab and what does it do?
The Software Stewardship Lab is a Scottish non-profit that does applied research on the open source ecosystem. Its research themes are supply chain security, maintainer wellbeing, funding models, and governance. It contracts researchers, publishes open-access papers and open datasets, and builds open source tools. Funding comes from company sponsorships and individual contributions via Open Collective, with a long-term goal of offering open-ended research stipends. Open source maintainers navigating sustainability challenges track efforts like this on daily.dev.